China's security czar Zhou Yongkang appeared
on state television yesterday evening, quelling rampant but unsubstantiated
rumours that he was under arrest following a failed coup on Monday.
His
meeting with visiting Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa in Beijing
was broadcast on China Central Television's main 7pm news programme.
This
follows standard Chinese political protocol, which dictates that the 30- minute
bulletin must report on the official activities of all nine members of the
Politburo Standing Committee (PSC), China's most powerful governing body. Zhou,
69, is a PSC member.
His
meeting was also not unusual. It is normal for senior Chinese leaders to meet
officials from countries they have been to in the past. Zhou visited Indonesia in 2008.
It was
Zhou's first public appearance since rumours of a coup circulated in Beijing
earlier this week, based on speculation that he was unhappy with the sacking of
Bo Xilai as Chongqing party secretary last Thursday.
A
Financial Times report cited a person with 'close ties to China's security
apparatus' as saying that Zhou had been ordered not to make any public
appearances or take any high-level meetings, and was "already under some
degree of control".
The
British paper, citing the same unnamed source, also said that Bo was under
house arrest and that his wife had been taken away for investigation into
suspected corruption. It could not confirm the information.
Bo, 62,
was sacked as Chongqing party secretary but kept his Politburo seat, after his
aide Wang Lijun escaped to the US consulate in Chengdu last month. The case
remains shrouded in mystery.
But
even though there has been no evidence so far that Zhou, who controls the state
security apparatus, has been implicated in the scandal, rumours persisted in
Beijing.
Analysts
rubbished the speculation. "It is impossible for Zhou to publicly disagree
with the removal of Bo. The Politburo Standing Committee must have come to a
consensus before sacking him. Elite struggles in China still have quite a bit
of civility," said Chinese political observer Wang Zhengxu from the
University of Nottingham.
"There
is also a rumour that even Zeng Qinghong has been detained. That is impossible.
China would be in complete chaos if it is true."
Zeng,
72, is a former vice-president who retired in 2007. Most observers believe he
still wields significant power behind the scenes.
Such
wild speculation has been raging in the Chinese capital over the past week,
fuelled largely by the immensely popular microblogs and the absence of credible
official news.
The
online hysteria peaked with talk of a 'coup', purportedly led by Zhou. There
were claims of tanks entering Beijing, security being beefed up on the subway
and even of shots fired from the leadership Zhongnanhai compound and Diaoyutai
state guest house.
Censors
have been scrambling to erase such posts, blocking an ever increasing list of
sensitive names, phrases and terms related to the downfall of Bo.
Searches
for 'coup' (zhengbian) have also been routinely rejected by China's vast online
censorship system known as the Great Firewall.
Chinese
Web users have tried to get around these restrictions by referring to the
leaders by a variety of names.
Zhou,
for instance, is called Master Kong - a brand of instant noodles here - because
the names share a common character in Chinese.
Netizens
said that prices of instant noodles are coming down, as a coded message that
Zhou was about to be purged.
Premier
Wen Jiabao, who criticised Bo on the eve of his sacking, is referred to as
Teletubby because his name shares a character with the Chinese name for the
popular children's television series Teletubbies.
And
President Hu Jintao has been given the Chinese name for carrot - Hu Luo Bo.
Censors have blocked all forms of searches for terms linked to Bo, whose
whereabouts remain unknown.
If
there were any lingering whispers of a coup, the Chinese military surely
snuffed them out yesterday.
General
Guo Boxiong, vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission and Politburo
member, urged the People's Liberation Army to stay united with the Communist
Party, making clear that the military is behind the government.
"We
must further unify behind the party central leadership," he told troops in
north-western Shaanxi province.
Peh
Shing Huei
The
Straits Times
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